About The Kurds

Who are the Kurds ?

Kurds are an ethnic group native to a mountainous region of Western Asia known as Kurdistan, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. There are also exclaves of Kurds in central Anatolia and Khorasan. Additionally, there are significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in particular Istanbul, while a Kurdish diaspora has developed in Western Europe, primarily in Germany. They are estimated at a population of about 45 million. Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, which belong to the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. A majority of Kurds belong to Islam but also to Shia Alevism, Yarsanism, Yazidism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. However, that promise was nullified three years later, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made no such provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in their respective countries.[35] This fact has led to numerous genocides and rebellions, along with the current ongoing armed conflicts in Turkish Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan, and Rojava. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish nationalist movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights, autonomy, and independence throughout Kurdistan.